Eastern Mediterrenean rivalry in the Turkey-Greece relations

Being in the middle of a geography where armament is the highest rate in the world, increases Turkey's security concerns, makes this state necessary keep herself strong. Turkey that is surrounded by seas on its three sides has also similar challenges at seas. Besides its strategic importance, the hydrocarbon recources dicscovered in the region in recent years have increased attention to the Eastern Mediterrenean. With the developing technology, reaching to the natural resources under the seabeds has been facilitated, thus the importance of seas has increased. Because of their disputes, Turkey and Greece are unable to benefit from the resources sufficiently in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterrenean. Turkey has been faced many challenges and majority of these issues come from her neighbouring state Greece. Even though the relationship of the two counries were good in some periods of time, they have never had rivalry against other states as well as each other. Between 1960 and 2000, the two states based almost all their foreign policy on this rivalry. Since gaining independence in 1829, Greece has tended to expand against Turkey. Likewise recently this country concentrates on maximum advantage on maritime jurisdiction zones in the Eastern Mediterrenean against Turkey. At the present time, although international law prohibits states from land expansion, it gives certain rights at certain distances in the seas as a continental shelf or an exclusive economic zone. The reason of the problem in the region that the two countries take action by interpreting the international law of the sea in their favor to gain more economic, political and strategic gains. Unlike other issues between Turkey and Greece, many regional and global actors have direct interests in the Eastern Mediterrenean. In addition, the fact that the states in the region have many and diffrerent political problems within countries or among each other makes it more difficult to share maritime jurisdiction in the region. Turkey and Greece are in the center of the issue of sharing jurisdiction in the Eastern Mediterrenean. Due to importance of the problem, with the expansionist policies of Greece against Turkey, legal and political dimensions of the issue in the region will be explained. It will be tried to be understood the expectations of the two countries in the region and foreseen the future of the issue.